The public utility is spending $150 million this year alone to reduce power outages caused by trees. But in a search for a better approach, it’s testing new, more proactive methods including using AI and laser technology.

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Hydro-Québec is taking a new approach to reducing power outages caused by trees, which are a significant issue in Quebec due to the prevalence of above-ground power lines and frequent storms. The utility is investing $150 million in proactive solutions, including experimental plantations and research partnerships to study how trees can be physically modified to grow around power lines.

In addition to physical modifications, Hydro-Québec is testing advanced technologies like LIDAR, which creates 3D digital maps of vegetation, and artificial intelligence algorithms to predict which branches are most likely to cause outages. These methods aim to enable more precise pruning and reduce the need for widespread tree cutting. The research is ongoing and part of a long-term project, with the goal of balancing reliable electricity supply and urban greenery.

How Hydro-Québec is testing AI to help power lines and trees coexist

Quebec has lots of trees. But they can be a bit of a hassle, especially when branches come crashing down and knock power out to thousands. The percentage of outages caused by vegetation in Quebec is important. At the same time, people like trees. We keep saying we want more of them in the city. But not everyone likes it when crews come in and clear-cut branches to avoid that whole power outage issue. And Hydro-Quebec says they're investing $150 million this year doing just that. So is there a way for power lines and trees to coexist? Well, Hydro-Quebec says there is, and it involves some pretty interesting new technology. And yes, that means AI. Before we get into the details, here's a bit of context. We do have some issues in Montreal with bigger trees. We had, maybe a few decades ago, many maple trees, several maple trees that were implanted that go very big, sometimes twice as tall as the network. Most of our hydro-electrical lines are above ground. There's a lot of conflict between the trees and these lines. We have more and more big storms, winds and ice storms and wet snow that can create lots of problems, so much so that some people even advocate that we should reduce the amount of trees that we establish in the cities. But I believe this is wrong. So what's their solution? Well, the answer is actually right here at a Hydro-Quebec facility on Montreal's south shore. We're at Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville. This is an experimental plantation in partnership with Hydro-Quebec and UQAM-UQO. We're trying to see how the different treatments enact the development of the trees regarding the power grids of Hydro-Quebec. We always have to go back to the real tree, the reality, and test our knowledge. So this is what we created there. This is kind of a natural experiment. This was an open field. It belongs to Hydro-Quebec. Okay, so this is like a huge test site for researchers. Basically, they're looking for alternatives to simply coming in and hacking away at trees that are in the way of power lines. First thing they're doing is they're studying how they can physically modify trees to make them grow around the power grid. So this tree, you have a tutor, which tries to make the tree grow in sort of a Y shape so it can have a large mass of leaves, become a big tree, but still have these Hydro-Quebec electrical wires that can cleanly pass through it without any risk of damage. Another method is putting these bonnets on the trees. So we add this to add shading and obstruction to these branches, and the leaves die, and it usually can stop this process. And this prevents them from growing straight up and colliding with power lines. The goal is really to see which species respond the best to which treatment, see which treatment is the most effective. Now, the second part of the solution here is about pruning the trees, but doing so with surgical precision and using some cutting-edge technology. Now, this is where it gets interesting. Think of an overgrown area near some power lines. Well, these researchers have figured out a way to create a digital map of it to identify problem areas. We have now this ability to send millions of laser beams that can reconstruct in 3D whatever that we can see. For example, the tree diameter, the tree biomass, and the tree height. You actually have the tree reconstruction. You can even add leaves. This technology is called light detection and ranging, or LIDAR for short. It sends out signals that create data points, and these data points turn into a digital map of trees, branches, whatever you may need. Now, what do we do with that map? So we can use artificial intelligence to train our algorithm to detect, for example, what are the branches that is the most likely to fall? Because if we can measure the trees before, for example, a big wind event or a big ice storm, and after, and we can determine which branches actually broke, then the algorithm can take this information and improve its ability to predict which will be the branch that is most likely to be pruned. So instead of doing what we do now, what I call a kind of a shotgun approach where we eliminate as many branches as possible, we can now intervene, we hope, in a more precise way. Now, don't expect to see Hydro-Québec teams attaching metal poles to your trees or 3D mapping out your yard anytime soon. These methods are still in the research phase, and they're part of a project set to last another decade. But Hydro-Québec says they want to implement it all. If there's new science that shows that we can do things differently, we will do it. We'll apply it to our work. You know, if we need less time in order to work on vegetation control because we've actually worked with nature in one area, then we can actually do more work elsewhere. That's the whole idea.

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How Hydro-Québec is testing AI to help power lines and trees coexist

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